Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-04-23
My Resurrection Prank.
BY GEO. III. TAYLOR.

tessional prospects, or rather, want of
prospects. Having sown my wild oats
and obtained medical diploma, I had
settled down in the little country town of
W to work up a practice. 1t was
very hard to leave the activities of the
city and the prankish life of a student for
the quiet of rural community and the
sedateness requisite for impressing the
rural mind with the belief that all mcdi-
cal skill was locked up in the particular
knowledge box carried on my shoulders.
But the little Town of W, or that
particular section of it in which | had
opened an office, seemed to my friends,
and, therefore, to me, the only spot on
earth not already pre-e mpted by mem
Der of the medical profession. So there l
was, awaiting veriication of the adage
that call things come to those who
wait"
l had come very near having case
that morning. A strange young woman
had come to the leading hotel of the
town the day before, had been taken sick
during the night, and, as there seemed to
be nobody to guarantee the payment of
her bill in case she died, my professional
competitors appeared willing that l should
have the job.
But the fates were against me, for as l
assembled the stairs / was told that the
young woman was dead and her body
had been turned over to the tender
mercies of the town coroner and under
dertaker. Even then the coterie of
''good and true" citizens picked up
around the bar-room door had "viewcd
the body" and retired to meet at some
indefinite period and declare that "thc
said person, to the jury unknown, come
to her death by some means to the jury
unknown" the pauper coffin was in the
room and the pauper hearsc stood at
the door. | had been little dilatory
in responding to the unexpected and
very early morning call, and l had
lost the case. SO | turned on the stair
way and leisurely made my way back to
my office.
The business of working up prac-
tice'' in medicine will at times depress
the most sanguine temperament, and |
was, as l have said, having one of those
depressed moods when Bonaparte Laguec,
the town undertaker's man-of -all-work,
dropped in wearing very gruesomc face
anu Hclpeu nllnSell 10 CHAIR cOnnuen-
TALLY near me.
"Sick, Bonyl" l asked; for the young
man, though looking the very picture OF
physical vigor, seemed at loss how to
open the conversation.
Nav" he answered in a tone of
strong disgust; "only sick O. this buryin'
business, and O that measly small boss O.
mine. Do you know what he's gone an
donea"
"No."
"Wcll, you know the old woman Ny
ers that's been dyin so long of a disease
that none o you medicine fellows could
make out?"
"Yes, died last night, believer"
eyes, an | let that worthless son O.
crs have a coffin on tick an the boss
says he'll take the price of it out of my
wages. Now, it wasn't nothing better
than cheap pauper coffin, but amt 60
ing to stand the loss if my rich boss can't,
an he's going to have that coffin back if
have to dig for it. I'm going over to
the cemetery tonight for it, an didn't
know but you wanted good 'dissect
and would give me hand. She'd make
stunnin' dissect, cause nobody knows
what she died of. I'm little nervous
about goin' over there alone, an thought
if you'd help me get the coffin I'd help
you get the body"
Here was chance to chase away mel
ancholy, and hadn't had lark since
left college. If was found out it would
destroy all hopes of a practice in W,
to be sure, but that didn't mean much,
considering how slight fabric those
hopes were built on anyway, and it would
furnish me with n reasonable excuse to
my friends for quitting the apparently
barren field they had selected for me.
Besides, was there not hope of unearthins
. great medical secret that might hand
ones name down to posterity?
Added to this there would be great sat
isfaction in helping Bony to thrust that
cheap coffin under the nose of the craven
spirited Worms, the undertaken, and dar-
ing him to risk his own reputation by ex-
posing Bony to the law. Bony's revenge
might be at the expense of his situation,
but it would be rich; and it might have
the contrary effect of compelling Worms
to keep the man and treat him decently
in order to keep his own meanness out Of
the public ear.
Such arguments as these only needed
the natural reaction they created in de-
pressed volatile temperament to make
them convincing, and midnight saw Bonv
and me digging away like human ghouls
at the newest grave in the potters' field of
the town cemetery. That is, midnight
might have seen us if she had carried her
lantern with her, but Mrs. Myers had
died in ''the dark O. the moon," and we,
for greater privacy, had gone without a
light.
We raised the coffin and its contents
and by devious paths and byways bore it
to the back room of my office and there
turned on little light.
"The wrong coffin, by jingo," was the
ejaculation of Bony; and he dropped
with half paralyzed limpness into the
nearest chair.
Then, recovering from his mortifca-
ton, he went on: ''That's the coffin what
we used for the gal at the hotel.n
Here was pretty go. The coffin was
Of no use to Bony; and the unknown
friends of the girl would in all proba-
bility be on hand in a few days to claim
the body and take it elsewhere for inter-
ment.
"But she'll make bootiful dissect, ~
added Bony by way of comfort, when he
saw the misgiving expressed on my coun-
tenance. ~ noticed as how she was q
bootiflll gal when we was a mailing % her